The Untold Truth Of The Kennedy Family

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (known simply as "Jack" or "JFK") became the most historically well-known of his namesake after being elected President of the United States in 1960, but the truth of the matter is that he was groomed for a life of public service by a string of political patriarchs. JFK's father, Joe Kennedy, was a businessman who held a high position in the Democratic Party and was heavily involved with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's early campaigns, for which he was awarded several power positions (more on this below.) Joe inherited the political gene from his own dad, P.J. Kennedy, who was a leading figure in the party's Boston branch in the late 1800s and served in the Massachusetts state congress for more than a decade.

JFK's maternal grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, was also a prominent figure in Beantown at the turn of the century, serving as a state senator and congressman before becoming the mayor of Boston in 1906. Interestingly enough, Fitzgerald and P.J. were political rivals until their respective children, Rose Fitzgerald and Joe, united the families in matrimony. 

Sadly, P.J. predeceased his grandson staking his claim to the White House, but both Joe and John Fitzgerald heavily participated in JFK's early campaign strategies.

Perhaps the darkest moment in the Kennedys dynastic history dates back to JFK's youth, when his then-23-year-old sister was secretly lobotomized at the insistence of her father. According to People, Rosemary was considered "intellectually disabled" and her father feared she'd become pregnant. After the "catastrophic" procedure, she had the "mental capacity of a toddler" and was sent away to live at a facility for the mentally ill, the magazine reported. 

Rosemary's brothers and sisters thought she had vanished. According to People, "it would be another two decades–after Joe became incapacitated by a severe stroke in 1961– before any of Rosemary's eight siblings would learn the truth about their sister's disappearance." After sending her away to the Saint Coletta Catholic institution, Rosemary's father never saw her again. 

Although Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis remains one of the nation's most beloved former first ladies, JFK was said to have carried on extramarital affairs with a host of women—some more famous than others. Most notorious was his alleged romance with iconic actress Marilyn Monroe, who so famously dazzled him with her "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" stage performance in 1962.

He was also reportedly linked to stripper Blaze Starr, who claimed to have carried on an affair with the then-future President in a 1989 People magazine interview. Actress Marlene Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva, claimed her mother had a brief fling with JFK in the White House several years after she'd been courted by his married father, Joe Sr.

JFK's alleged dalliances also reportedly included affairs with Jackie's secretary, Pamela Turnure, with the controversial and allegedly mob-connected Judith Campbell Exner, with White House interns Mimi Alford, Priscilla Wear, and Jill Cowen, and with Swedish socialite Gunilla von Post.

A financier named Jack Worthington II came forth to claim that he was the biological son of the late JFK in a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair. The Kennedy family rebuffed his story, but Worthington claimed his mother revealed his true parentage when he expressed concerns about potentially passing down a genetic condition connected to the man he called dad, Jack Worthington. The younger Jack claimed his mother, a former beauty queen, said he needn't worry about the genetic condition because his true father was JFK.

Because he did not die of natural causes, people tend to forget that JFK battled several serious illnesses during his life. Though many of his ailments were kept secret during his campaign, his myriad health issues reportedly included serious childhood bouts with scarlet fever, colitis (which was initially suspected to be leukemia,) measles, mumps, whooping cough, bronchitis, appendicitis (which necessitated an appendectomy,) ulcers, and chronic lower back problems. During his service in the Navy, he suffered a back injury during a tour in the Solomon Islands in 1944 that ended his military career.

JFK underwent spinal fusion surgery to relieve his chronic pain from collapsed vertebrae in 1954, and the surgery nearly cost him his life—he even went into a coma and had his last rites administered by a priest. However, he ultimately pulled through and wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage, while recovering from the operation. During his presidency, he also reportedly suffered with the Addison's disease, which required regular steroid treatments, as well as urinary tract infections, allergies, and a short run-in with mood disorientation—that's all on top of the lifelong gastrointestinal issues and chronic back pain that continued to plague him.

To maintain his powerful presidential image, JFK's medical records were kept under wraps for decades. When they were finally made public, the nation was shocked to learn about the commander in chief's many hospitalizations, chronic pain, and assorted medications.

Though their marriage was viewed by outsiders as a fairy tale union, insiders have claimed their relationship was plagued by alleged infidelity, drug use, and potentially even domestic violence. According to Vanity Fair, just days before the fatal plane crash, JFK Jr. and Carolyn's alleged marital woes had reached a fever pitch, with "John John" telling a friend that he and his wife had reached an impasse over the decision of whether or not to have children together. JFK Jr. supposedly wanted to start a family; Caroline did not. 

"It's impossible to talk to Carolyn about anything." JFK reportedly told a friend (via The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years.) "We've become like total strangers."

In his biography A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction (via People), Sen. Ted Kennedy's son, Patrick, detailed not only his own personal struggles with addiction and depression but shed light on the familial vow of silence that had lived on through generations of Kennedys. He revealed in his tell-all that after the death of JFK and RFK, his father "went on in silent desperation for most of his life, self-medicating and unwittingly passing his unprocessed trauma onto" his children. As a public figure, Ted "never got to grieve. He had to be there for his country. He had to be there for my family. He had to be there for my Uncle Bobby's 11 children, and John and Caroline."

Patrick's elder brother, Edward Kennedy Jr., claimed those statements were inaccurate, but Patrick told 60 Minutes that he expected to receive some backlash for his revelations. "This is like breaking the family code here," Patrick said. "I am now outside the family line. I was hostage to the family code that no, don't say anything about it. Anything you said, it's disloyal. It's against the family code." He said that hush hush maxim also extended to the notion of seeking counsel for mental issues because psychiatrists might be tempted to break their confidentiality credo and spill the family secrets.

Other stories about this so-called code of silent solidarity have tarnished the family legacy. In the book Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream (via the Toronto Sun), author Jerry Oppenheimer writes that JFK. Jr., as assistant district attorney, was pressured to support his cousin, William Kennedy Smith, who went to trial for allegedly raping a woman on a beach vacation. Smith's "alleged predatory behaviour was a family secret," the Toronto Sun reported. "Against his own wishes (and his mother's, Jacqueline Onassis), JFK Jr. went twice to the courtroom—during jury selection—in a public display of support...or else harmful information about him would be leaked [by his own family] to the press."